


Loss Ficlet: Treehouse

by missclairebelle



Series: Loss (Ficlets) [11]
Category: Outlander & Related Fandoms, Outlander (TV), Outlander Series - Diana Gabaldon
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-04-12
Updated: 2018-04-12
Packaged: 2019-04-22 03:26:55
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,105
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14299758
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/missclairebelle/pseuds/missclairebelle
Summary: Jamie shares a special place with Claire.





	Loss Ficlet: Treehouse

**Loss (Modern AU)**  

**Treehouse**

**July 2015**

Jamie’s promise to show me a “treehouse” turned out to be the understatement of a century. Said “treehouse” was a small, _actual_ _house_ wrapped around a tree.  It loomed over Lallybroch’s outer grounds, well above either of our heads and far from the main house.

“How do you get up?”

“Over here.”  Jamie took my hand, molding his fingers over mine until we were both pointing at the ground. He guided our hands up, taking a moment to run a finger along my thumb and wrist before guiding it up to point.  Behind the first tree was a second tree with an open-air gazebo. It was seemingly floating in the air; a bridge suspended between both trees connected the gazebo to the “treehouse.”

“Can we go up?” I asked, a little breathless at the whole thing. It looked like a fantasy world plucked directly from _The Swiss Family Robinson_ and dropped here in the Scottish Highlands at Jamie’s ancestral home.

“Och, aye.”  Jamie tightened his grip on my fingers and pulled me towards the second tree. “This part is a wee bit primitive, but dinna fash yerself – it’s safe and it’ll hold.”

I tested a single foot on the ladder that was hammered into the tree’s bark and began to climb, my feet tentative on each rung, testing to see if it would hold my weight.

“Dinna look down, though,” Jamie said when I was about five rungs up.  My first instinct, naturally, was to turn and look at him and then at ground. I was not far up from the ground’s mossy damp dirt, but my heart sunk and I pulled myself closer to the ladder.

_I wasn’t even afraid of heights, so why?_

I released a sound best described as a squeak.  And that bloody Scot _laughed_ at me, the bastard.

I kept my face close to the tree and continued my ascent. Jamie climbed quickly behind me, his feet sure on rungs that had tested his weight probably a thousand times.  It took him only a few moments to catch up to me. When he did, he pressed his lips into the back of my thigh just above my knee where the wind had lifted my dress. I shivered and muttered, “God dammit,” but felt quite pleased with myself for the skin being irresistible to him.

When we got to the top, Jamie pardoned himself and jogged across the small bridge between the trees, telling me to wait “ _just a second, ye’ll have no’ seen somethin’ sae beautiful before_.” The filaments of hundreds of Edison bulbs crackled on in waves over our heads, casting an antique orange glow over us.  Smaller warm white lights circled the thick rope handhold along the bridge between the trees.

“This is… amazing.” But “ _amazing_ ” did not even begin to do it justice.

Jamie came back to me and took my hand, drawing me over the small bridge.

“How did you… I mean, this is… elaborate…”  It was actually _beautiful_.

“Och, weel, I’m pretty handy, Sassenach.  And I had a fair bit of help from my Da.”  He slid the door into the “treehouse” open and we were in what looked like a bedroom – a double mattress on the floor covered in a thick green quilt and pillows.

“It’s really quite… homey.”

There was a small crate next to the bed.  A water glass held a small bunch of heather, wild and deep purple and bound with twine in a small amount of water. I couldn’t stop the smile that touched my lips. “Did you bring me here to seduce me?”

“No,” Jamie snorted, a little half-heartedly. He stood back and watched me run my hand over the small glass of flowers.  “Not entirely.”

He stepped up to one of the beams running up the paneled wall, his fingers rising and pausing over the smooth wood.

“C’mere.”

I came up to his back and he indicated with his head to the beam. Deep in the wood someone had carved:

_JAMMF_

_BRDF_

_2000_

“Your father?” I asked, already knowing the answer.  I tucked myself against his back, my cheek on his bicep and my arm slipping around his waist. I brought my fingers to rest between his fingers and we touched Brian Fraser’s initials together.

“Aye,” he said, the sound barely leaving his throat.  His eyes shifted and he looked out of the window, jaw set. I didn’t know if I should talk or not. “We designed it and built it together. Took all summer… and, uh… most of the autumn… and part of the winter. We froze out here, turnin’ pink in the wind, drinkin’ watered-down whisky.”

He fell quiet for a moment.  I could almost hear the wheels in his head turning.

He finally added, “Jen was so jealous of the whisky.”

I gave him a moment to breathe before confessing, “It’s really beautiful, Jamie.”  

“And no, I didna bring ye out here to seduce ye,” he said, fingers skimming down to the date.  My hand fell with rest on his and hover over the year.  “But I did want some private time with ye, aye.”

I laid my cheek on his spine – _“T11_ ,” I guessed to myself after he fell silent again for a moment. Eventually Jamie took his hand from the wall, and pressed my hand into his belly, holding it there with his thumb roving over and over my thumb, down the curve of my wrist, and then to the inside over my pulse.

“Some of my best memories of my Da are here in this treehouse, Claire.”  I pressed my mouth against his t-shirt. “We were here when he told me about fallin’ in love with my mam.”

His voice was dry, soft, a little detached. I could feel his heart picking up speed just under his ribs – a soft _thrum, thrum, thrum_ escalating, deepening.  The world slowed and everything stood still.

“When I asked my da how ye knew which was the right woman, he told me when the time came, I’d have no doubt. I _don’t_  have any doubts.”

I swallowed, hard. “Jamie, I…” I stopped, resting my forehead against him, just letting his warmth sink into me.

“Stop.”

He wasn’t looking at me, but I could see the look in his eyes nonetheless.

My breath hitched and I curled my fingers into his stomach.  I could feel my heart pounding and rapidly ascending into my throat.

“Just be with me, Claire.”

I couldn’t cure the ache of Brian Fraser’s absence, but I could just be, with him, for as long as he needed.


End file.
